One of the joys of the internet is that it connects and levels things.  Enough amateurs can be as right as an expert, and uniquely strange loners can find all the other strange loners just like them.  I know I did, anyway.

That connection, and that collective action can be put to good use, and one of the websites that is attempting to put that to  good use is Kickstarter.  While it’s not a requirement (I don’t believe), most of the projects on Kickstarter are artistic projects of one type or another.  It means that those of us who cannot support a creative person as their sole patron can instead be part of a group of patrons.  Personally, I think the patronage model may be one of the best ways to get art that isn’t specifically commercial, and I want that kind of art, and those kinds of games.

As such, I’ve already donated to two successful projects:

Heather Logas is making a web-based choose your own adventure game that sounds interesting.  Dierdre Kiai is making an adventure game called Life Flashes By.  I’ve played Dierdre’s work before, and very much enjoyed it. Plus I’ve got a nice postcard to show for it.  I look forward to playing these games, and watching their development as the projects continue.

But those are closed projects, and I want to call your attention to two other projects that I’ve donated on, and which haven’t closed or met their funding yet.  I believe in both these projects, which is why I donated to them.

The first project is Addicube by Corvus Elrod and Charles Berube.  If you follow this blog, then you know that I’m heavily influenced by Corvus’s ideas about games and narrative. I’ve played several of Charles’s games as well, on his Wasabi Project website.   They are about 2/3 funded, and have about 1/3 of their time left. Actually, it’s just 20 days now.  I have faith that the two of them will turn out something unique and different, and really want to see it.  So I’m urging you to take a look at it, and consider funding them.

The last project is not a game, at all, it’s a comic. Or more rightfully, a web comic site. Patrick Farley of E-Sheep comics is trying an experiment.  He wants to see if he can get 3000 people to give him $1 a month to allow him to do nothing but draw and post comics.  Some of his comics are pretty amazing, his Death of a Jain was amazing, and I was really struck by Delta Thrives (although it seems to be offline).  Those with more pokemon knowledge than me may enjoy his last-revelations take on it, with Apokemon.  I only donated $2 to his project, as its an attempt to get $6000 in two months.  He’s only about 35% funded, and also has 3-4 weeks to go. Take some time to look at his comics, and decide for yourself what they are worth.

I have hope that both these projects will be able to succeed.